Saturday, 31 March 2012

March has drifted by without me being able to do anything whatsoever to stop it ... which means it must be time for another monthly round-up ... in numbers ...

27 = the number of Month in Numbers posts I've written to date!

2 divided by 3 = the number of scones bought and eaten by friends and I en-route to our twice yearly crafting weekend away:

We'd already eaten lunch and all wanted to try the scones but, inexplicably, we decided against having one each. So there then ensued an impromptu Maths exam with us trying to work out the easiest way to divide the 2 between the 3!

[For the record there was no easy way to do it! Not when you just really want to eat scone, rightnow, so it gets cut up any which way. And then, the other 2 decided I should eat the leftover piece ... not that I put up much of a resistance!]

3 = the paltry number of stands I spotted selling 12x12 scrapbooking papers at the papercraft show we visited while we were away. And what there was was mainly old stock. It was so disappointing.

I mean ... it was a papercrafts show ... with hardly any paper!! Someone bring me the Trades Descriptions Act ...

24 = the number of chocolate treats hidden around the cottage as part of our Easter themed egg hunt, with 3 of us hiding only 8 treats each so we could all still play along without knowing where they all were.

And, in case you were wondering, this is what a group of fully grown adults looks like while searching for 24 hidden chocolate treats:

And ... it's just possible that both Jan and I forgot where we hid the 8th one of both ours which led to some serious searching of cupboards and memories!!

40 = the number of days until Bring Up the Bodies [Hilary Mantel's sequel to the much-featured-in-2010's-Months-in-Numbers-posts Wolf Hall ] is published. Not that I'm counting the hours ...

And, speaking of books ... it reminds me that the very unofficial [i.e: non-existent] Month in Numbers book club has had its first success. Nathalie let me know she's reading [and more importantly - that she's enjoying] Andrew Miller's Ingenious Pain after I mentioned it here last month. Yay!

600 = the approximate number of paperclips in the 2 boxes I stocked up with this month. And while they may not be the most exciting buy they are necessary as I go through a lot of them when clipping together my Plundered Pages and Interesting Bits kits.

I'd asked James to bring some in for me when he went to town, which he gladly did, but not without posing the question "Who even buys paperclips?". Errrm ... me!

Approximately 50 metres = the level of visibility we had in a quite eerie-yet-magical visit to the seaside last Saturday:

An unseasonal, very thick white mist painted-out the entire coast!

You're going to have to trust me that, on any ordinary day, there should be a beach in this photo. With sea in the distance. But not last week!

[BTW: James and I have just had a long, unscientific, discussion over how on earth I could put a figure on the level of visibility we had last week without having measured it on the day. So we've resorted to Googling the length of the pier and then analysing the photos we took that day ... like something from CSI!]

And the reason we were at the seaside in the first place ...

50 metres = the length of the Olympic-themed guerrilla knitting which has appeared on Saltburn Pier in recent weeks:

It was fabulous to see, such good fun and there was a lovely festive feel with everyone taking photos and chatting about the different knitted scenes and characters along the railing.

But let me just give you some advice ... when you're a scrapbooker who makes a deliberate trip out to take photographs of something as utterly photo-worthy as this spectacle ... make sure of 2 things:

that the day you decide to go isn't the foggiest you have ever seen on a beach ever in your life ever!! [I swear there were children running down to the sea who just suddenly disappeared into the mist and out of view. This completely spooked both me and, judging by how much shouting and calling out names there was going on down there, it spooked their parents too!]. And ...

Make sure your camera battery is charged up. Which - horror or horrors - mine wasn't. I don't know if I'll ever be able to hold my scrapbooking head high again. I had to take lots of photos very quickly ... before the battery ran out completely!

But not to worry, I'll be nipping back there with a fully charged camera soon enough because, let's get serious here ... photos of guerrilla knitting are going to be taken and scrapped come hell, high water ... or freaky thick fog!

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So, that's how my numbers shaped up for this March ... how about yours?

If you are planning to share your own statistics, and if you'd like to take full advantage of the Pinterest pinning and the community aspects involved, then ...

... here's a quick reminder ofthe Month in Numbers 'etiquette':If you're planning to share a post this month and you'd like to leave a link for myself and others to come and visit and/or pin please bear in mind it has a shared experience aspect to it, so [as I mentioned earlier in the month] ...

when you swing by here to drop off a link to your post - please leave a comment for me while you're there. Not because I'm needy ... but because it feels fair. Reciprocal.

please link to my blog in your post. As much as I'd like to think that everyone who reads your blog already knows what 'My Month in Numbers' means... the truth is, they don't. So unless you explain where the idea comes from and how your readers can join you in doing the same next month, they are none the wiser.

Please take time at some point in the month to visit and comment on a few of the other posts too.

What super knitting! I may post you some to attach when you go back for some less foggy photos. [but knowing my knitting skills probably not].Another month whizzed by already - scary biscuits.Here's mine and I've created a pinterest board for the pics too.http://bit.ly/HqFqCrLove your post as always.♥

Didn't realise it was that foggy last Saturday. Made me smile about the camera battery.I started taking photos of a cultural day in school and got some fab shots of a juggler to realise I left the memory card at home. Went on a real forage to find other memory cards :0)

Mmm, scones, we had a couple of those this month too, love them, especially with lots of clotted cream :-)

That day at the beach really does look spooky, like some sea-witch has been casting a dark spell ... to make your camera batteries run out apparently! I'm glad you managed a couple of pics before they died completely!

Here's my March in numbers: http://jennifersjumbles.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/march-in-numbers.html

Another terrific post from you, Julie. I really look forward to your Month in Numbers posts. I have a bare outline done and posted: http://suburbansahm.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/month-in-numbers-march.html

Oh no! Oh no! The end of March has come along far too quickly! I'm still picking numbers from my recent trip to Vegas and finding photos - there's some seriously BIG numbers just there!!!

Loved the whole foggy discussion - nice to know I'm not the only person who is thwarted by the weather and camera batteries - we once had to re-explore the whole of Luxembourg one Sunday as it had been too foggy the day before to enjoy any of the viewpoints!

1: The number of Easter egg treats that 1 friend spent about 1 hour looking for because the other friends had forgotten where they'd hidden it ... and '4' the number of cream eggs that friend was given by her other friends because they felt sorry for her :)

I love to read your Month in Numbers every month! They always put a smile on my face even when there is no comedy involved at first glance ;) Fun to see my name in there and yes, I am still very much loving (I don't feel like this is the right word for this book though!) Ingenious Pain so I have to check if my library has Wolf Hall! Love the idea of the Month in Numbers book club has I have regularly included reads in mine too :) I would totally enjoy this guerilla knitting display too and finally, here is the link to my numbers this month:http://anounceofcreativity.blogspot.com/2012/03/my-month-in-numbers-march-edition.htmlLooking forward to checking the others' :)

Aha! I got here. My "next" button has been making me travel backwards so I have seen everyone else's numbers before yours. But now I'm here and getting pretty excited about guerilla knitting, let's be frank. Now, where could I start?

Very entertaining post. My page is now done and should appear tomorrow

Your friends sound great fun with your egg hunt. Look forward to seeing more on the guerilla knitting. My March in numbers is here http://helenascreativemaven.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/summing-up-march.html

Have been having a catch up so have added both my February and March posts - will get there in the end.Still smiling at the voices in the fog and lost children - must be cruel :0)Great article in Journaling and was lovely to see your name throughout.

Hi JulieI've finally got around to blogging my numbers :D Loving your numbers this month, I really should take my camera into town after Knittaz With Attitude have had one of their yarn bombing sessions - the guerilla knitters here are a well known community group who like keeping Blackpool toasty :DC xx